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Residential Building Vlugtlaan
Residential Building Vlugtlaan is a complex with a social character designed according to the principles of the Western Garden Cities in Amsterdam: 'light, air and spatiality'. We designed this residential building for VORM Ontwikkeling as part of a feasibility study. The building has 90 apartments in the medium rental segment and can be built in two phases. The building forms a strategic link between a shopping street at the front and a park-like setting at the back. By stimulating social encounters in the plinth and core, it embraces the “neighborhood principle”; an ordering concept to stimulate a sense of community.
Social character
At the heart of the residential building, a void provides daylight and spaciousness. All apartments have a two-sided orientation, something quite unusual for a compact residential building with relatively small apartments. By placing the kitchen with an open visual relationship to the core, we want to encourage social encounters or a sense of home and community. No dark chilly circulation space, but an entrance that adds quality to the apartments. In addition, the open core also provides a highly efficient GFA/UFA ratio. Combined with a smart grid system, utility shafts in each corner and a facade that is independent of the layout of the apartments, the building is also extremely flexible.
Characteristics of the 'Western Garden City' in Amsterdam
The postwar reconstruction period was a time of optimism and modernization. New materials and production methods made their appearance, as did the new spatial, repetitive and 'ultra-green' form of urbanism. The motto became “light, air and speciality” and we follow these principles in a contemporary way. The architecture is unpretentious and characterized by a separation of construction and infill, making the structure clearly visible. The clear concrete facade system is filled with warm wooden accents for the loggias and window frames.
Type Architecture
Program Residential (90 apartments), bicycle parking, commercial space
Location Amsterdam – NL
Year 2022
Team Keizer Koopmans
Client VORM Development
Images Keizer Koopmans, Douwe Strating